Gypsy - Lesley Pearse [96]
Beth understood why he was afraid, but she was too exhausted to concern herself with that for now, and besides, she loved Theo, he’d rescued her and she’d willingly go anywhere he suggested.
‘It’s the only thing to do,’ she said, and patted her brother’s face affectionately. ‘I’ll be fine, I promise. I feel so weak that I’d only be a liability to you if I was to come with you now.’
‘It isn’t right for you to be alone with a man like him,’ Sam said stubbornly. ‘And I don’t like him telling Jack what to do either.’
‘He was talking sense,’ Jack butted in. ‘As soon as all this started I knew I wouldn’t be able to hang around afterwards, I’ve heard what that crew do to anyone who gets in their way. I’d rather Beth came with us now, but she isn’t up to it, Sam, so we ain’t got no choice.’
Beth looked gratefully at Jack. ‘I’m so sorry you had to get caught up in this and lose your job too.’
‘I might get a better one in Philadelphia,’ he said with a resigned grin. ‘And we’re not greenhorns any longer — we might even make our fortune.’
Beth could barely keep her eyes open as the cab took her and Theo to his place. He had arranged to meet Jack and Sam a little later to collect her belongings and to give them an introductory letter for his friend in Philadelphia.
‘They won’t know themselves there,’ he said reassuringly when she’d been a little tearful as they said their goodbyes. ‘Frank is a wealthy man with a finger in every pie in Philadelphia. He’ll have Sam in one of his saloons and Jack in some other business before they even get a chance to unpack.’
Beth was so exhausted she didn’t notice where the cab was taking them, only that it was some way uptown from Houston Street. She was vaguely aware it was a brownstone house in a quiet square, the kind of area where well-to-do families lived.
Theo took her up a flight of stairs and into a large room at the front of the house. All she really saw in her exhausted state was a big bed with ornate carved posts, and she collapsed on to it. She vaguely heard Theo telling her she needed to take her boots off and that he would tell his landlady she was there before going back to Houston Street, but she was already sinking into sleep and couldn’t respond.
She woke later to the familiar sound of a fire being raked, and for a moment or two she thought she was back in Liverpool, for she had woken to that sound throughout her childhood. She was very warm; the covers over her were thick and heavy. But as she stretched a little, an ache in her back and arms brought her back to reality. To her consternation she realized that she was wearing only her camisole and petticoat; her dress, stockings and stays had all been removed.
Keeping the covers right up to her nose, she cautiously opened her eyes and saw Theo bending down to the fire. She felt rather than knew that he’d been in the room with her for quite some time for the curtains were drawn, the gas lit, and he was in his shirtsleeves.
The room looked very cosy, with two big armchairs drawn up to the fire and a thick red rug in front of it. The whole room had a rather grand air, for the gas lights on the walls had ornate glass mantles, the curtains were heavy brocade, and there was a linen press against one wall which matched the dark wood of the bed and was equally ornately carved.
‘Theo,’ she whispered, ‘what time is it?’
He stood up straight and turned to her with a smile. ‘At last! I’d begun to think you would never wake. It’s seven o’clock in the evening and I saw Jack and Sam off at the station hours ago.’
‘Who took my clothes off?’ she asked.
‘I did. I couldn’t let you sleep with them on. They were wet and badly soiled and you’d have been very uncomfortable,’ he replied.
Beth blushed and burrowed deeper into the covers. ‘Could you get me something to put on then?’ she asked nervously. ‘I need to get up.’
He went over to the door and took a checked wool dressing gown from the hook. ‘Put this on for now, though I have got all your own things here. If you’d